The Future of Media and Information Needs of Communities in a Digital Age

1/21/10 FCC Launches Examination of the Future of Media and Information Needs of Communities in a Digital Age. Comment Date: 3/8/10. Public Notice: Word | Acrobat

As the nation's expert agency involved in media and communications policies, the FCC has begun an examination of the future of media and the information needs of communities in a digital age. The objective of this review is to assess whether all Americans have access to vibrant, diverse sources of news and information that will enable them to enrich their lives, their communities and our democracy.
The Future of Media project will produce a report providing a clear, precise assessment of the current media landscape, analyze policy options and, as appropriate, make policy recommendations to the FCC, other government entities, and other parties.

Studies Differ on Internet's Impact on TV , New York Times Sept. 21, 1998 ("With tens of millions of people using the Internet every day, more and more advertisers and media executives are starting to wonder whether active surfers are watching less television.")

I-Reporters capture first images of Minneapolis bridge collapse , CNN August 2, 2007 (" An interstate bridge in Minneapolis , Minnesota , collapsed during rush hour Wednesday evening, sending cars and debris crashing into the waters of the Mississippi River . I-Reporters provided some of the earliest images of the devastation to CNN. ");

1922 Press-Radio Wars - Associated Press restricts use of its newspaper stories by radio stations. Thomas White, US Early Radio History (The Electric Telegraph 1860-1914)

"Like the court gazettes in Europe, these papers posed no challenge to authority; they primarily chronicled events across the Atlantic but provided little information about developments at home, much less any critical discussion of politics. Monopoly newspapers had little incentive to do otherwise; in each case, the publisher was either a postmaster or a government printer and therefore dependent on the authorities for his livelihood" [Starr p 56] [See Network Neutrality]

1719: American Weekly Mercury established in Philadelphia. "The American weekly mercury was the first newspaper published in the middle colonies, and the fourth, in order of time, published in America." [LOC]